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Babar Azam and hundreds go hand-in-hand these days as the Pakistan captain appears to be in the best form of his life. The 27-year-old batter has been outstanding for the Pakistan cricket team in the last couple of months, continuing to break records in almost every match that he plays. Babar Azam, who is now Pakistan's all-format skipper, struck an excellent ton in the first game of the three-match ODI series against the West Indies, becoming the first batter to complete a set of three consecutive centuries twice in the format. In the following ODI, Babar Azam once again scripted history and became the first to accomplish nine fifty-plus scores in a row in international cricket. His performance in the ODI series against the Windies took his average to incredible heights as he now averages 59.22 in the 50-over cricket. Remarkably Babar Azam has slammed 17 hundreds and 19 fifties in only 89 matches in ODIs. Babar Azam's stunning displays with the bat have often led to comparisons with the world's best batters including India superstar Virat Kohli. The latest to join Babar Azam's fan group is former West Indies fast bowler Ian Bishop. According to Ian Bishop, Babar Azam with his brilliant run of form of late has already “overtaken” Virat Kohli as the best batter in One-Day Internationals.
“Babar Azam is on the road to greatness. I want to be clear when I say ‘on the road to…', in the white-ball cricket at least, and certainly in fifty overs. I don't use the term ‘great’ loosely. It has to be a bigger sample size to bestow greatness on a player, but his average, as we speak now, (is) on the cusp on 60 with 17 ODI hundreds. He has almost overtaken his next door neighbour, the great Virat Kohli, in terms of the ultimate uber fifty-over batsman,” Ian Bishop said in a conversation with cricwick.com.
Ian Bishop, however, believes that Babar Azam was yet to achieve his full potential in Test cricket and his batting in the five-day format was still a “work in progress.”
“His Test cricket is a work in progress. I'm surprised he hasn't taken to Test cricket numbers a lot earlier. He's starting to get better at it. Technically, he's superb. In future, I'm hoping he will be mentioned in the same breath in Test cricket as the top 3-4 players,” Ian Bishop added.
Under his leadership, Pakistan clean swept the three-match ODI series against the West Indies, which ended on Sunday.
After winning yet another bilateral series for Pakistan, Babar Azam has now set his sights on winning two World Cups – the T20 World Cup in Australia later this year and next year's ODI World Cup for his country.
“No doubt I am enjoying my form. But with this form, my prime goal is to win the two World Cups for Pakistan in the next one-and-a-half years and if that happens I will feel that my runs are worth gold,” Babar Azam told AFP.
“When I started playing cricket as a schoolboy the target was to play international cricket for Pakistan, become the world's top batsman in such a manner that it helps my team to win all the titles. I was crazy about cricket in my childhood and noticing that passion my father backed me,” he added.
“As captain, I want to take the challenge because I am at the front. If I am in front, only then my team will follow me and that is the same with run-scoring. If I am scoring runs then other batters will follow and get inspired, but there is always room for improvement so I want to improve my finishing and that is important as captain.”
The World No.1 ODI batter also hit back at the Pakistan cricket team's critics who have said that the Babar Azam-led side couldn't chase down targets of 350 and beyond.
“We talked about how we needed to play different cricket. And we have played proactive, positive cricket, People said we couldn't chase 350. We did [against Australia], and our bowling also defended totals. Ups and downs are natural. You don't always get a result even if you give 100%. Sometimes you have to accept that what you do can't be executed the way you wanted. I can only keep demanding effort from my team. They're doing that, and so the results are following,” said the 27-year-old.
Babar Azam also claimed that he was more than happy with Pakistan's bench strength.
“Bench strength always gives you a lift,” he said. “Knowing you have players on the bench who are ready to use is good to know. We had Iftikhar, Abdullah Shafique, and Dahani on the bench. We tried a different bowling combination and they performed very well. It's very satisfying as a captain to see that.”
Pakistan has not won an ICC event in a long time, while they lifted their only 50-over World Cup in Australia in 1992, the South Asian nation captured the T20 World Cup in 2009.
